Java, it seems, has evolved from a groundbreaking, revolutionary language platform to something closer to a modern-day version of COBOL. In just 15 years, it has moved beyond maturity into a silver-haired stage of staid dependability. Java offers stability, not agility; reliability, not innovation.

http://infoworld.com/d/developer-world/geriatric-java-struggles-stay-relevant-700
Oracle could end up losing the “Java war.” Oracle cannot push Java at the expense of alienating all other devs from Pro*C/C#/Python/PHP/COBOL etc. Yes, Java runs inside Oracle, but it’s still 2nd tier compared to PL/SQL because of its syntax i.e. classic procedural vs. set-oriented.

So where does that leave Java? It’s a great language for enterprise development, but not innovative anymore. Even James Gosling, best known as the father of the Java programming language, encourages development of other languages on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

http://polyglotprogramming.com/papers/PolyglotPolyParadigm_v5.pdf

There are powerful alternatives including Scala, Clojure, and JRuby. What’s more, these new languages bring “functional programming” capability to the table, which Java cannot do.

Here’s a funny aside regarding XML. Gosling has remarked, “I’d really like to never see XML again. We are 99% of the way there.”

http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=59733